Conventional stereoscopic video usually requires twice the storage capacity, transmission bandwidth and playback bandwidth of 2-dimensional video. This is due to the use of separate image streams for each of the left and right eyes with the two image streams often being coded independently from one another. The burden of the second video data stream can overwhelm existing modalities for content distribution such as, e.g., DVD disc, internet transmission, cable broadcast. Additionally, the burden of the second video data stream can exceed the data transfer capabilities of local storage media and the rendering capabilities of consumer digital video playback hardware. Finally, certain parameters of stereoscopic video, namely the convergence, require manipulation to adjust to screen size and viewer sensitivity for comfortable viewing. Conventional stereoscopic video has no provision for such adjustment.
In view of the above, it should be appreciated that there is a need for improved methods of stereoscopic video compression, encoding, transmission, decoding and decompression and/or manipulating stereoscopic video for presentation to take into consideration such factors as screen size and/or viewer preferences.